Descent Into Madness
by DeathAngelGoad
Summary: My own original story. This story is set in the distant future, where the world is ravished by war and famine. Two kids loose their family and wander around hoping to survive. But after surviving from near death, the boy becomes plagued by nightmares and will no longer sleep. Lack of sleep leads to hallucinations. And hallucinations lead to Madness,
1. Chapter 1

**Decent Into Madness**

The year is 2279, the world lies in shambles, never knowing a moment of peace. There is constant war, death, famine, and strife. You could say that the four horse-men of the apocalypse are riding. There is long periods of this chaos with a very rare and brief periods of calmness between the few nations that remained. Very few nations still stand in one piece, yet in some of the more remote cities, some tranquility exists there. And yet, even with all that is going on, there are two siblings, an older brother and a younger sister, who are trying to find a place to belong to. They have no where to go, their home caught in the middle of a battle. The parents, sacrificed themselves to ensure their escape, but before the siblings loss, the father spoke to his son as the soldiers surrounded their home. As their mother said good bye and finally convinced them to go ahead, the father pulled his son aside.

"Thomas my son, promise me this, you will take care of your sister no matter what will happen to us. I don't care what you have to do, but please, please keep her as safe and as happy as you can. Your old enough to endure this. But your sister however, will have a long road ahead of her to recover from this. Please don't take this wrong, but we couldn't be more proud of you two then we are now. Unfortunately though, I feel as this may be the last that we will ever see of each other again. Please don't be sad, we will always be with you. I know it may be selfish of me to give you this burden, but if your Mother and I don't survive and you abandon your sister Emily, we will forever resent you until the end of time. Just know that we will be watching you forever and always. Now go, quick, don't look back no matter what you do. Don't let me down my son." the father finished with tears in his eyes as he ushered them out.

The young boy grabbed his sister, put her on his back, and took off into the forest without looking back. He ran for three hours straight before he finally slowing down and began to walk off the trail. Thomas walked until sundown and settled with his sister in a small clearing in the forest. He started a fire and convinced his sister to get some sleep after assuring her that he would keep her safe from harm. He however, stayed awake, haunted by his parents screams of pain he heard as he ran away. He prayed to whatever gods there were, that his sister Emily couldn't hear their screams. Thomas hasn't slept for the first week since it happened. Not only haunted by it, but also do to the constant worry that his sister would be harmed if he had let his guard down.

One day, Thomas decided to question Emily to see how much she heard or remembered from what had happened. She told him exactly what she heard, and when she did he was relieved. She couldn't hear the screams over the sounds of battle. Since Thomas didn't have to worry about Emily hearing the haunting sounds, he could gain some sleep. It was only an hour every three days, but it was plenty for his grieve stricken and unrest-ed mind. With his mind at a somewhat ease, they began to travel once again. They wandered until sunset, started a fire, and ate whatever edible plants they could. This pattern continued for three weeks until they came across a temple that had a small family living there. The Family consisted of a grandfather, his daughter, and his grandson. After hearing of the siblings story of what happened they took them in.

The family welcomed them with open arms. The siblings learned of how the family survived at the temple by living off the land. They were taught how to farm, what was edible, and how to purify water. They all slept in one room however for safety and to help the children stay calm. Although Thomas wouldn't sleep, he stayed in there until everyone else was asleep. He would then leave to go sit in the moonlight or in an old dark room that he had found. After just a month of living with the family, they seemed like they have always belonged. The grandfather, who's name was Edgar, was an old teacher who would teach the children all they would need to know. The mother, who's name was Theresa, she was an experienced apothecary. While the son, who's name was Albert, was no older than Thomas, but he was able to befriend Thomas and Emily rather quickly. Thomas was glad his sister was happy with their new family. Yet he himself hasn't opened up as much as they have or his sister Emily has.

Within the first week of living with their "new" family, Emily had opened up and told them all about herself. What she liked, wanted to be, and what she dreamed of. Thomas soon followed giving a simple explanation of only wanting to see his sister happy. Theresa and Edgar wanted to know more about Thomas, but didn't pry any further after seeing the look in his eyes when he spoke. It was a look of pure sadness and despair, but there was light in his eyes when he spoke of his sister. They believed he didn't talked about what he liked and dreamed of because it would remind him of his parents. And they knew he was hiding something about them, but would let him tell them when he was ready to.

He still couldn't sleep even after all that had happened and he didn't want his burden to become theirs. Thomas felt as he would only dragged them down but letting them know. He still hadn't told anyone of what his father had said to him or of what he heard as they ran away. But instead of telling them, he found an old blank book where he would write down all that he had felt and experienced every night he lied awake. Thomas noticed that if he went without sleep for more than three days that he would begin to hallucinate and see happier times. He knew it was bad, but he opted to be silent and marvel in the delusions of happier times. He'd even write down in the book how he longed to be able to continue to live within his memories.

Yet one night was the worst ever for everyone in the temple. It was around midnight and everyone was asleep except for Thomas. He sat in the darkened room in a corner, with his knees to his chest. He was hallucinating of the happiest moment he could remember, but during that memory he suddenly saw nothing but blackness. Thomas almost began to panic due to the abrupt stop until he came out from the delusion, and took steady breathes to calm himself down. But then, he was thrown into his worst memory, the one that would be forever burned into his memory until the end of time. It was moments before he had lost everything but his sister, except this time it was from a different point a view.

Thomas watched as he ran off with his sister on his back. Mere seconds later soldiers burst into the home and began to attack his parents. And then he heard the one thing that haunted him for what felt like years, his parents' screams of pain. If it could, time would have stood still for Thomas. It triggered his own thoughts of what happened that day as he ran away. He began to scream, "No, please stop. Don't hurt them." as he watched soldiers brutally stab and beat his parents. Thomas heard their soul shattering screams and pleas for mercy. He then heard what sounded like muffled steps of someone running, yet he couldn't move. He felt something grab a hold of him and he panicked. Whipping his head around, Thomas saw a guard had caught him and was about to attack him as well. Thrashing wildly he tried to escape but the guard had a strong grip on him. He became hysterical and began crying and lashing out with his eyes closed, trying to get it to stop. On the verge of a panic attack, he heard the soft and almost silent pleading words of Theresa and his sister Emily saying, "Please Thomas open your eyes! Its okay, please just open your eyes. It's not real, you have to open your eyes." He continued to hear the screams but he stopped thrashing around and just clutched his head screaming for it to stop. After what felt like an eternity to Thomas, the screaming slowly stopped and left him there jut huddled in a corner crying hysterically.

It hurt Theresa and Emily to see Thomas like this, it seemed as if he was fine, at least he always acted like everything was. Theresa was especially upset because she was a apothecary and should have see the signs of him not sleeping and being delusional. She remembered the other night when she awoke late and notice Thomas was missing. She went to look for him and found him sitting in the room that he was in now. He had a distant look on his face and his expressions kept changing. She couldn't see his eyes so she assumed that he was just having a good dream and decided not to wake him and left. But if she would have stayed, she would have seen that Thomas was actually awake and began talking almost as if there were others there with him.

Emily was currently trying to get her older brother to open his eyes and stop crying. It scared her to see him like this. Thomas was never like this when they were on there own for three weeks. He promised to keep her safe and happy but couldn't see it happening if this continued. And it reminded her of how they had lost their parents and she didn't want to lose her big brother so soon. Theresa ushered Emily out of the room promising her that she would help Thomas. Emily reluctantly went back to where Edgar and Albert were. Theresa began to check on Thomas to see if he had hurt himself during his hallucination and saw a book next to him. After being sure he was indeed asleep this time, she looked at it and saw it was Thomas' own writing. After being sure that he was okay, she began to read it, she noticed that it was about the hallucinations that he had been having. After reading through it, she determined that he had witnessed or experienced something terrible as they fled and had determined that been hallucinating since he had been wandering through the forest because of what ever happened.

Theresa picked Thomas up and carried him back to where everyone was. When she slipped in the room she told them to be quiet as Thomas was finally sleeping. Luckily Albert was a heavy and hadn't woken up. She had lied him down on the bed and had Emily keep an eye on him for a moment while she spoke to her father. Theresa and Edgar walked into the hall shutting the door quietly so they would wake up neither Thomas or Albert. Once they were in the hall her father proceeded to question her.

"Theresa what happened with Thomas? Why was he screaming?" Edgar asked his daughter.

"He was hallucinating to what I believe to be the separation from his parents." she replied. "I don't know how I didn't see it earlier, but he hadn't had much sleep at all. If I'm correct he hasn't slept in over a week in a half."

"Why do you think he hasn't been sleeping?" he asked.

She responded with, "Remember when he told us of how he said he only wished to see his sister Emily be happy?" She saw him nod his head. "And he had a look of sadness and despair in his eyes." Once again he nodded. "Well apparently he experienced something traumatic. After I checked on him, I saw a book next to him, and this book is an account of everything that had happened since they were separated from their parents. Just read this first page Dad." She handed him the book.

The book read, _A couple of weeks ago our house was surrounded by soldiers. My mother and father had prepared us to run so that we could survive their fighting. Right as we were about to leave, my father pulled me aside and told me "Thomas my son, promise me this, you will take care of your sister no matter what will happen to us. I don't care what you have to do, but please, please keep her as safe and as happy as you can. Your old enough to endure this. But your sister however, will have a long road ahead of her to recover from this. Please don't take this wrong, but we couldn't be more proud of you two then we are now. Unfortunately though, I feel as this may be the last that we will ever see of each other again. Please don't be sad, we will always be with you. I know it may be selfish of me to give you this burden, but if your Mother and I don't survive and you abandon your sister Emily, we will forever resent you until the end of time. Just know that we will be watching you forever and always. Now go, quick, don't look back no matter what you do. Don't let me down my son." I then proceeded to throw my sister on my back and run into the forest. As I took off for not only my life, but my sister's, I heard what will forever haunt me for the rest of my life. My parent's cries and screams of pain. I just pray to god that my sister didn't hear any of it. If I can't handle it them I know there is no way she will be able to. I wasn't able to sleep for a week. After three days of no sleep, I began to hallucinate. Its nothing bad, only good memories. I know its wrong, but I want to continue reliving these memories. I wish they could continue forever._

 **Next Entry**

 _I've hallucinated several times while we stayed within the forest. We stayed in the forest for three weeks until we came across a temple. A small family of three was already living there but after telling them our story, they welcomed us with open arms. They taught us how to survive better of the land. We've been with this family for almost a week now, and I still haven't slept yet, but these hallucinations seem to become more frequent. I just can't let anyone see whats happening to me. It was three days later Emily opened up to them all. Telling them all about what she dreamed and wanted to do. I cannot open up as much as Emily has for its my burden of no sleep and hallucinations, not theirs. It's my sole responsibility to bear, not theirs. But I did however tell them that I only seek to see Emily happy._

Edgar stopped reading after the first two entries. He felt as if he should read the remaining three entries. Instead he began to ponder about what they should do about what had happened and for what is to come of this. He then turned to Theresa and asked, "What should we do? We can't act as if nothing has happened. It's already to late for that, his sister has seen it happened. And I doubt it will be the last time that it does occur."

Theresa thought for a moment before responding, "We should try to have his sister keep quiet about it for now. And focus on getting him to ask us for help otherwise if he doesn't get help, he will descend into madness."

Both nodded their heads in a silent agreement and returned to the room where the children were. Upon returning to the room, they noticed Thomas' face begin to slowly twist and distort. They then silently motioned Emily to move away from her brother. Not a moment after she got up, he began thrashing as if fighting an invisible enemy. Theresa rushed to his side and tried to keep him from lashing out at the others. Emily tried to be at her brother's side but Edgar was holding her still. As he restrained her he said, "Emily, listen to me. I know you want to be by your brother's side right now but you can't. We still don't know what is causing him to lash out and we can't having you getting hurt because of this. Imagine if he were to wake up and learn that he hurt you. He would be devastated and may do something impulsive and rash. For now, we must sit on the sidelines until we know what is wrong."

Theresa was able to get Thomas to be calm once again and then ushered everyone who was still up to get some sleep. The next morning rolled around and when everyone awoke, they noticed that Thomas was missing.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

It had been ten minutes since Edgar had started to look for Thomas. After searching most of the temple he began to get scared. There were few places Thomas would be able to hide if he chose to, but that wasn't what scared him. Coming upon the final door, he noticed it looked as if it was barged into. The door was barely on by its hinges. The table looked as if it was knocked over hastily and hit with a sword multiple times, miscellaneous things were thrown across the room. And that's when he saw it, a small pool of blood behind to table that lied on its side with a dagger stuck to it that held a part of Thomas's shirt. And a trail that leads out another door towards the surrounding forest.

Edgar quickly rushed out of the room and towards where he knew the others would be. He ran for what felt like hours until he finally saw the door to their make-shift kitchen. He busted through the door like a bat out of hell, and while doing so, scared everyone in the room.

"What's going on fath..." she was cut off as Edgar grabbed her and the children.

Edgar dragged them to a room that Theresa knew was used only if they were in danger, in a way it was a safe room encase any danger were to be coming towards the temple. It allowed for survival up to a week, and had an escape tunnel that could be used encase someone was to wait on the other side of the door.. He pushed them into the room that had extra beds, canned food, and some weapons. While this was all going on Theresa was still trying to figure out what was going on. She knew it was serious because her father only acts this way when there is serious trouble. Once again she tries to speak to her father.

"Dad what's going..." cut off once again she looks at her father's eyes and notices his panicked look.

Edgar begins to put on some basic armor and straps a sword and pistol to his belt. He looks at the three especially Theresa and says, " Stay here, I'm gonna find out what happened. And whatever you do, do not open this door unless its Thomas or myself." With that being said, Edgar stormed back out of the safe room, and towards where he found the blood. Upon entering he notices a small trail of blood trickles and splatters thats leads towards the surrounding forests. Storming off into the forest following the trail Edgar thought, _"Thomas whatever has happened to you, please be safe. I don't think I can explain to Emily that she has lost her brother as well."_

 **Meanwhile...**

Thomas awoke to find himself tied up and in front of a group of people. He lied, bloody and beaten in front of three soldiers. He then remembers how this came to be.

 _ **Flashback**_

Thomas awoke in the early morning from what he believes to be shouts. He walks towards a window and notices three soldiers walking towards the temple. Not wanting to put the family that Emily is happy with in danger, he takes off towards an abandoned room that appears to be an old study. Once Thomas notices they're extremely close to the temple, he makes a loud slam as if something fell. He waits as he hears footsteps and whispers coming closer and closer with each passing second. Thomas then takes a few steps out of the room and acts surprised to see the soldiers. He then immediately ran back into the room to try and shut the door on the soldiers.

The soldiers easily overwhelmed Thomas and barged into the room. Thomas looked up with fear in his eyes to see that they had had their weapons drawn. The three soldiers they surround him and tried to question him.

Soldier #1 began with, " Just tells us what we want to know and you want get hurt, much." he ended with a malicious smile.

Soldier #2 asked , "Why are you here, and are there any others?"

Before Thomas could answer any of there questions, the third soldier slammed him onto the ground and knocking over the table in the process. He then began to beat the boy mercilessly until the other soldiers stopped him. Once again they began to question him.

"Are you the only one here, or are there more hiding?" asked the first soldier.

"If there, why wouldn't I sell them out to save myself, but there's not, so there's no way out of this" responded Thomas.

"Heh, smart kid. Well them boys, looks like we only have one toy today" stated the second soldier.

"To hell with you, its people like you that cause others to suffer!" Thomas retorted angrily and then tried to snatch one of the weapons from one of the soldiers' hands. His efforts we in vain and he was met with a strong backhand. The blow was so sudden and strong that it had caused him to spit out the blood that had pooled into his mouth as a result of the hit.

With a sneer the second soldier said,"Looks like we got ourselves a feisty one. O well, it just makes it that much better when they struggle."

The soldiers then all pulled out small daggers. One after another they began to swing them at Thomas. After leaving him cut and bleeding decently, they halted their assault on the young boy. But being the young stubborn boy he was, Thomas retorted again with a threat to kill them if they didn't leave the temple. Fed up with the boy, the second soldier grabbed his dagger again a lunged at him. Thomas barely had time to move and was nicked by the dagger but it caught his shirt and was pushed into the wooden table behind him. Feel nothing more than pain and determination to protect the others, Thomas leaps to his feet, tearing his shirt, and takes of into the forest. He runs for about twenty minutes until he feels something hit him in the back of his head. He then slowly saw the world turn black as he fell from the blow.

 _ **End Flashback**_

As Thomas remembered what happened, he looked at the soldiers with a sneer. He was okay with dying here, as long as Emily was safe and happy, he could go peacefully. Noticing the boy's sneer the soldiers decided to toy with him a little more before they killed him.

"What are you so smug about kid, encase you didn't notice you're heavily injured and tied up in front of us. And news flash, you won't be leaving here alive." said the first soldier with an equally smug look.

"I wouldn't be proud if I were you, we know of what you did." said the third soldier.

Thomas tensed wondering how they knew that he wanted to lead them away from the others.

Noticing how he tensed, the second soldier decided he would give the final "mental" blow against the boy. "We know there are others. But I will say it's honorable of you to willingly sacrifice yourself for the others. And I know what your thinking. Just why didn't we say or do something earlier about the others. Well the answer to that my young boy is simple. It's better to watch the look of desperation and fear on their face when we end them."

On the outside, Thomas adopted an apathetic look after what they said, but on the inside he began to panic. He feels his heart begin to beat erratic and panicky, it feels just like last night when he had that horrible hallucination. Still panicking, he looks back at the hallucination and notices something. These same three soldiers were the ones in the hallucination. And at that moment of realization, that these three are most likely responsible for the death of his parents, for his pain, for Emily's pain, something snapped within him. He did not move, not even as much as the rise and fall of his chest to indicate that he was still breathing could be seen.

Looking at the boy, the soldiers noticed his look and laughed. _"Its over, we broke him."_ they all simultaneously thought. With one last sneer, the second soldier lunged at Thomas, sword drawn and not holding back he screamed, "Time to die brat, and then were going back and killing the rest slowly just to spite you."

 **Meanwhile**

Edgar followed the trail of blood for about twenty minutes. The trail had lead into a small clearing where he noticed three soldiers all looking at one tree and speaking to each other. He couldn't here them so he moved closer so he both see and hear what they were talking about. Edgar got within fifteen yards of the soldiers and stopped dead in tracks. There in front of the soldiers, tied to the tree bloody and beaten, was a disheveled looking Thomas. Anger swelled from within him and he was about to lunge out to avenge him until he saw him begin to wake.

For not only his safety but Thomas', he stayed behind the brush to listen to what the soldier were saying. Edgar heard of how they talked to Thomas. He heard that they knew Thomas played them to get them away from the others. Edgar than thought, " _Thomas your sense of duty is to high for someone of your age, you should have gone to warn us, not take it on by yourself._ " Edgar once again had to restrain himself as he heard them threaten the boy. He was livid once he heard how they threatened to go back to the temple. Edgar was about to snapped and attack them, his safety be damned, but then he saw Thomas' eyes. They looked the same as Theresa described to him when he was having the hallucinations. Edgar then noticed that Thomas then adopted an apathetic face and began to think, " _No Thomas, not now. Please for your own sake, don't remember that nightmare._ " Brought out of his thoughts, Edgar heard and saw the solder lunge at Thomas. Thinking it was to late, Edgar regrettably turned his head. Not wanting to watch as Thomas' life came to an end. But to his surprise, all he heard was the soldiers' shouts of disbelief.

"How did you dodge my sword when you were tied up. No matter all you accomplished was getting free of your bindings." Once again the soldier lunged at Thomas.

Deciding now was the time to act he rushed forwards to intercept the sword with his own. But what he saw truly puzzled him. The soldier's sword was grabbed by Thomas' bare hand! The soldier tried to pull his sword free but to no avail. Thomas' grip was immense and wouldn't let go.

Thomas looked up with eyes dead to the world and said, "You made the biggest mistake in your life. You showed me something I wished to forget, but it allowed me to see you three in a new light. Not only did you threaten me and my friends, but you three were the ones who killed my parents about two months ago." He then threw the sword from his grip launching it and its holder a few feet backwards.

The soldier got up with an angry expression and replied with, "O, so that was your family I killed. I must say, their deaths were by far the best I had been apart of in a while. The way they screamed in pain and pleaded for the mercy of a swift death, it was very delightful. And now I get to kill their little shit of a son. This is gonna be good." The soldier looked over to his other two companions and nodded. They all swung their swords at the boy hoping to catch him off guard.

But the most incredible thing happened, Thomas dodged all but one. The one he didn't dodge he had caught between two of his fingers and yanked it from its owner's hand, disarming him and arming himself. While the soldiers were astonished by what this young teen had done, Edgar was able to s engage one of the soldiers and drive him a few feet away from the others. Thomas looked over towards Edgar and only showed him his dead eyes. But it was enough, Edgar understood, nothing needed to be said. He only knew Thomas did not want him to interfere and that it was going to be a long day for the both of them. Edgar then engaged the two armed soldiers while Thomas looked at he soldier he disarmed with a malicious smirk on his face.

Thomas began by saying, "Let me show you the punishment for your sins against me and my family. You will regret ever being a soldier, while you have experience I have pure and udder hatred. But it will be then enough to end this once and for all." Thomas then looked towards the ground and began saying something inaudible. He looked up at the soldier with his eyes dead yet filled with a malicious intent. The soldier felt as if he was seeing his own death as he looked into the boy's eyes. Deciding that he should flee the soldier was ready to sprint way until he already noticed that Thomas was lunging towards him with the sword aimed at his neck.


	3. Notice

**I apologize for such a delay in the story. I've been busy with school had had major writer's block. But fear not for it has ended. I will return to updating the story at least once a week. Chapter 3 may be out a day or two after this is published because im already halfway through the chapter. Thx for waiting if you did. Reviews good/bad are welcome, I actually read the reviews to hopefully fix any mistakes if they're pointed out.**

 **Thanks Again,**

 **DeathAngelGoad**


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